Human Dignity, Rights and Victim Participation in Criminal Justice

Abstract

Human dignity is the cornerstone of human rights and central to the Treaty on European Union (EU) and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is embedded within constitutions across EU countries. This strong commitment to human dignity has given rise to extensive reflection on its centrality to correcting rights violations, inequality, discrimination and the oppressive conduct of state institutions. This article explores the work that human dignity does for people victimised by crime in the EU. We argue that the agentic human, central to the idea of victim participation, originates in human dignity. However, using a dignity lens, an analysis of victims’ rights documents and rights research reveals a paradox within the victim-friendly civil law jurisdictions of Europe. That is, the procedural position of the victim established in tradition and law is undermined by justice professionals’ attachment to the idea of the state’s ownership of the violation. We then discuss jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights relevant to the protection of human dignity to identify how this tension between the protection of individual victim rights, especially the right to remedy, and public interest is adjudicated. We suggest that the Court’s attention to individual rights should be harnessed by victim rights advocates and lawyers. While the victim’s procedural role matters to their substantive and meaningful participation in criminal proceedings, it is their right and capacity to act independent of the state that may matter more.